Conference play begins tonight
Eastern Washington and Idaho open their conference volleyball schedules on the road tonight, while Washington State waits to kick off its Pacific-10 Conference season at home on Friday at 7 p.m. against archrival and defending conference champion Washington.
EWU (7-3) plays its first Big Sky Conference match at Weber State (5-7) at 6 this evening, ending a l2-day layoff. Idaho (7-4) makes its Western Athletic Conference debut at San Jose State (5-6) in a match that starts at 7.
But WSU (7-4) faces the most difficult league opener, having to entertain No. 2-ranked and unbeaten Washington (9-0) at Bohler Gym on Friday. That match features a UW team that has not lost a single game this season and boasts three returning All-Americans in outside hitters Sanja Tomasevic and Christal Morrison and setter Courtney Thompson.
The Huskies are coming off back-to-back sweeps of No. 6-ranked Hawaii in Honolulu. The Cougars, in their second season under coach Brian Heffernan, won three of the four matches they played last week, but will be decided underdogs against UW. In addition, they must turn around the following night and entertain Gonzaga University (7-7) in a non-conference match that also starts at 7 in Bohler Gym.
Eastern is again expected to be among the top two teams in the Big Sky. The Eagles haven’t played since sweeping Appalachian State and South Florida back on Sept. 10 in the South Florida Best Western Invitational in Tampa, Fla. Coach Wade Benson hopes the extended layoff will have his Eagles well rested and energized heading into tonight’s match in Ogden, Utah.
“It was a good (Florida) trip for us, and the schedule worked out great with us not scheduling anything this past weekend,” Benson said. “We’re rested, but we’re a little unaccustomed to not playing as much as we’d like to have at this point.”
Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan said her Vandals will miss playing in the powerful Big West Conference, but added she is looking forward to the challenges presented by the WAC.
Idaho and San Jose have met twice before, with the Spartans having won both matches.
Gonzaga will take a week off after playing at WSU on Saturday. The Bulldogs open West Coast Conference action Oct. 1 with a 1 p.m. home match against Portland.